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Comparing fMRI activation during smooth pursuit eye movements among contact sport athletes, non-contact sport athletes, and non-athletes
- Source :
- NeuroImage : Clinical, NeuroImage: Clinical, Vol 18, Iss, Pp 413-424 (2018)
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Elsevier, 2018.
-
Abstract
- Objectives Though sub-concussive impacts are common during contact sports, there is little consensus whether repeat blows affect brain function. Using a “lifetime exposure” rather than acute exposure approach, we examined oculomotor performance and brain activation among collegiate football players and two control groups. Our analysis examined whether there are group differences in eye movement behavioral performance and in brain activation during smooth pursuit. Methods Data from 21 off-season Division I football “starters” were compared with a) 19 collegiate cross-country runners, and b) 11 non-athlete college students who were SES matched to the football player group (total N = 51). Visual smooth pursuit was performed while undergoing fMRI imaging via a 3 Tesla scanner. Smooth pursuit eye movements to three stimulus difficulty levels were measured with regard to RMS error, gain, and lag. Results No meaningful differences were found for any of the standard analyses used to assess smooth pursuit eye movements. For fMRI, greater activation was seen in the oculomotor region of the cerebellar vermis and areas of the FEF for football players as compared to either control group, who did not differ on any measure. Conclusion Greater cerebellar activity among football players while performing an oculomotor task could indicate that they are working harder to compensate for some subtle, long-term subconcussive deficits. Alternatively, top athletes in a sport requiring high visual motor skill could have more of their cerebellum and FEF devoted to oculomotor task performance regardless of subconcussive history. Overall, these results provide little firm support for an effect of accumulated subconcussion exposure on brain function.<br />Highlights • Elite collegiate football players have identical smooth eye movements in comparison to cross country runners and controls. • There is more activation in ocularmotor structures in football players in comparison to cross country runners or controls.
- Subjects :
- Male
medicine.medical_specialty
genetic structures
Cognitive Neuroscience
Football
Stimulus (physiology)
lcsh:Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics
lcsh:RC346-429
Smooth pursuit
03 medical and health sciences
Young Adult
0302 clinical medicine
Physical medicine and rehabilitation
Physical Stimulation
medicine
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Humans
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging
10. No inequality
lcsh:Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system
Brain Concussion
Football players
Analysis of Variance
4. Education
fMRI
Collegiate athletics
Eye movement
Regular Article
030229 sport sciences
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Contact sport
Pursuit, Smooth
Oxygen
Neurology
Athletes
Acute exposure
Cerebellar vermis
lcsh:R858-859.7
Female
Neurology (clinical)
Psychology
human activities
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Photic Stimulation
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 22131582
- Volume :
- 18
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- NeuroImage : Clinical
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....f8f74a0e4bf59c107f3a3d394eff72e1